SEEDING FUTURES FOR WELLBEING

Catalysing Collective Imagination

Context
This compendium is a response to the essay penned by The Hon
CONTENTS
Dr Jim Chalmers MP for The Monthly in February 2023.
Our team at Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation (GCSI – formerly Seeding Positive Futures
The Yunus Centre) was inspired by the Capitalism after the 3 - A Collective Imagination Starter Pack
Crises topic, and decided to approach a diverse group of potential - How might we catalyse collective imaginations for positive futures?
collaborators (see below) to come together around the theme. - Understanding the imagination landscape

We were interested to explore what we might together as a group Seven Themes

be able to generate by way of practical (HOW) suggestions that
could support the vision and sentiment outlined in the essay. We
gathered on March 16th, 2023, before and after CEDA’s Major 8 Accounting for the Future
Address lunch held that day, and also ‘listened together’ to the
Treasurer’s address at the event. 10 Intergenerational Wellbeing of Places + Communities
On the day and over the intervening period, we’ve worked to
develop this response. We offer this in the spirit of being ‘in
conversation’ with the Monthly essay and the Treasurer’s efforts 12 Systemic Capital
to promote a values-based capitalism agenda, potentially as an
important legacy of his tenure.
15 Transforming Markets + Supply Chains
We hope to continue this conversation and offer our support
to deepening and strengthening both conceptual and practical
understandings of what it would take to affect systems-shifts along 18 Quality Jobs in the Future of Work
this trajectory.

Participants who came together to workshop ideas presented in this compendium: 21 A Diverse Care Economy that Really Cares
• Professor Ingrid Burkett, Director, GCSI
• A/Professor Joanne McNeill, Deputy Director, GCSI
• Dr Glenda Stanley, Partnerships Manager, The Bryan Foundation
24 Just Energy Transitions
• Professor Katherine Gibson, Community Economies Institute & Institute for Culture
& Society, Western Sydney University Creating Conditions for Cultivating Collective Imagination
• Craig North, Managing Director, Firesticks Alliance 27 - Next step seeding...
• Belinda Drew, Deputy Director-General, Communities, Department of Treaty,
Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities & the Arts
• Adam Fennessy, Dean & CEO Australia & New Zealand School of Government
• Tim Marshall, Head of Government Relations & Public Affairs, Skafold Global
• Sacha Edema, Head of Government Affairs, Paul Ramsay Foundation
• Clare Fountain, Education & Training Lead, Business Council of Cooperatives &
Mutuals (BCCM) https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/5007
2
Seeding Positive Futures
The current political environment in Australia
isn’t always conducive to the sharing of bold and
courageous visions for collective futures. Yet,
we live in a time when exactly such visions are
needed, perhaps more than ever. We need to be
able to harness our collective imaginations, and
commit our shared capacities towards creating
such futures. We do not have to agree on how
to get there - but we do need to imagine potential
directions, opportunities, options towards which
we can navigate, no matter where we sit.
Starting from the article shared by the Treasurer,
we have identified seven themes that could
create the foundation for such conversations.
We offer this as a catalyst to start deeper
conversations - conversations that take this
particular vision as a starting point, but use it
to ask deeper questions, foster engagement,
debate, dialogue and genuine curiosity about how
we can grow positive futures.
sharing. Some of the seeds are responding
to ‘unknowns’ in the future - but we make
space for the conditions that might mean that
if we plant them they could sprout and provide
opportunities over coming years.
The seven themes are outlined below. This
booklet explores each one in turn, creating
some foundations for deeper discussions.
Seeding Futures for Democratic, Values-based Capitalism
Figure 1: Seven themes identified in Jim Chalmers’ 2023 essay ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’ (https://tinyurl.com/5dnk37vs)
Accounting for
the Future
Just Energy
Intergenerational Wellbeing
Transition
of Places + Communities

We call on the Treasurer to continue to foster,

nurture and grow this important conversation
- and to start close in, in his own electorate, to
support a collective, deliberative, participatory
imagining of how we could plant and grow
seeds of possibility towards the vision of a
more just, more sustainable future.
A Care Economy Systemic
Some of these ‘seeds’ are already planted, that really Cares Capital
waiting to flourish with the right attention and
conditions. There are existing initiatives that
are already growing pockets of these futures in
the present which need further exploring and Transforming Markets
Quality Jobs in
the Future of Work + Supply Chains 3
A Collective Imagination Starter Pack
This booklet is intended as a collective imagination starter
pack! We have created a reflection on the seven themes
identified above with the aim of engaging with other interested
parties, both locally and internationally, in processes of rigorous
imagining and deliberation about how we could create the
conditions for futures in which values-led capitalism, democracy
and wellbeing could flourish.
For each of the seven themes we have drawn together some
questions, perspectives, sense-making starting points and
deeper potential discussion points aiming to foster collective
imagination and deliberation.
Theme
Themes drawn from the original article
requiring collective imagination
Core Question
A core question that helps shape a frame for
imagining possibilities
Perspective on the Territory
An overview of some of the territories of the
theme from our perspective
Starting Point for Sense-Making
A provocation or framing as an offering for
sense-making
Territories for Deliberation
A set of potential territories for collective
imagination + deliberation
“The task of turning imaginative ideas into lived realities
invariably involves assemblies that combine multiple things
into a useful form rather than just extrapolation from a single
idea...what changes the world in the end is the generative
ideas, not the detailed blueprints.”
Geoff Mulgan, Another World is Possible: How to Reignite Social and
Political Imagination, 2022
How might we catalyse collective
imaginations for positive futures?
All of the questions, inspirations and pockets of possibility shared in the
following pages offer insights into (and hopefully inspire imagination
around) the kinds of enterprises and initiatives policymakers, financiers
and other eco-system actors could be supporting and prioritising to take
on practical roles in shifting the trajectory of change.
But if we are to really shift-the-dial here we need to get much more
nuanced about what we mean by values when we talk about values-
based capitalism, and about how public participation could help shape
narratives around imagining this relatively complex territory.
Over the course of the original day’s discussion, our collaborating group
coalesced around two inter-twined strands that would be critical in taking
the dialogue further into the public domain:
• meaning-making over indicators and other ‘measures’ of wellbeing,
to improve interest in participation; and
• opening up more deliberative, distributed and participatory spaces
through which people could contribute to decision-making that affects
their lives and the futures of their communities.
4
The assumption is that if measures could be made
more meaningful, then people will be more interested in Uncovering citizen Imaginariums Speculative Futures writing +
participating in defining and supporting the values that narratives about collective Spaces (physical and/or arts festivals For example, the
futures. virtual) of curated imaginative Black Speculative Arts Movement,
guide and govern decision-making. And if more people a worldwide creative movement
For example, the use of the ideas for the present + futures,
are participating, the values that permeate our lives will method, ‘SensemakerTM’ to or museums of imagination integrating African diasporic
be more explicit and by default also more inclusive and look at clusters of narratives that exhibit ideas from a place worldviews with science or
or a region or a cohort of technology holds a Black Futures
representative in their expression. that give us a sense about how
Festival in St Louis to explore
citizens are thinking about their people - see
futures + the future of their https://tinyurl.com/3bx2xche speculative futures - see,
Many of us have heard of ‘citizens juries’ or ‘citizens www.bsam-art.com
place - see
assemblies’ as ways of drawing together diverse groups https://tinyurl.com/3ujuenkb
of people to rigorously and deliberatively explore particular
issues. We suggest that a variety of methods be tested
and tried, including any or all of those illustrated here (see
Figure 2).

Understanding the imagination landscape

In thinking about a trajectory towards a society where
values-based capitalism models become more normalised
as ways of ‘doing business’, we find the Three Horizons
method offers a useful framework (see Figure 3). Serious Imagination Games
Using real + virtual games to
We draw on this approach (developed by the International engage people around
imagining local futures. For
Futures Forum), to challenge and open up linear views of example, “Utrecht 2040” is a
change - that make futures appear opaque, impossible multiplayer mobile game that
and risky – and to make the different ways we could enables students of Utrecht
University to re-imagine better
imagine futures into being more visible. futures for the city aligned with
the UN SDGs, + propose
The Three Horizons framework helps to get clearer about changes in real contexts + share
both what potentials lie in the present and how we could them with other players - see
imagine futures. We’ve written previously about how the https://tinyurl.com/hy5wcv67
Distributed Collective
Futures Festivals
For example, the RSA’s
Unboxed celebrated the power
of people coming together to
imagine + design better futures
through installations, events +
experiences created across the
United Kingdom
- see
www.thersa.org/collective-futures
Growing imagination
capability across
communities + cohorts
For example, Camden
Imagines has created courses
for teams + organisations with
a focus on imagination as a
core leadership skill +
encourages working with
communities to embark on
collective imaginings. see
https://tinyurl.com/2p9btpaw

framework can be used in combination with Mariana

Mazzucato’s work on Mission-oriented innovation (we call
it Challenge-led, as appropriate in the Australian context).

If we locate normalised democratic, values-based

capitalism and wellbeing as part of the ‘preferred future’
(third horizon), we can gain a sense of how we might
traverse there through applying a second horizon lens
Figure 2: Beyond Citizen Juries: Opening possibilities for collective, deliberative and participatory imagination
– as this isthe transition and transformation zone where
5

experiments, adaptations, and partial ‘solutions’
proliferate and where we can ‘test’ the future.
Examining ‘pockets of the future in the present’
can also help us to add colour to pictures of what
democratic, values-based capitalism could look
like in practice in different contexts.
So many of the themes we’ve picked out of the
article have deep roots - they are not ‘new’ ideas
and they have been spoken about in many forms
often for decades.
The real challenge is less about debating the
‘truth’ of tiny details of ideas and imaginings, and
more about how we move from conceptual
imaginings to making imaginaries that provide
opportunities to test how new approaches and
shifted trajectories could become part of our
social fabric.
We think there are five core rhythms to helping
shift from big ideas to big realities (not in a linear
way, but more as a continuous rhythm):
1. Learning the territory: understand the
histories of the idea, origins, traditions and
lessons learnt;
2. Making visible existing seeds + saplings:
finding what is already planted, and nurturing
these, creating conditions for these to
flourish;
3. Seeding collective imaginations towards
transitions: working with diverse peoples to
create participatory processes in imagining
HOW positive futures might be created;
Horizon One
Current paradigms,
assumptions, data + Horizon Two
infrastructure Transitions requiring
transformational
experiments + learning
NOW NEAR
FUTURE
Figure 3: The Three Horizons framework (based on that developed by Bill Sharpe and the International Futures Forum, 2016)
4. Biodegrading incumbent systems: in
order to make space for the new, we need to
find ways to biodegrade what is no longer fit
for purpose - this is a whole body of work in
itself and rarely discussed or enacted!
5. Seeding possibilities + creating
conditions for possible futures: seeds can
take years to germinate...but unless they are
planted in the present, and the conditions for
them to grow are present, there is no hope
for generating forests of future possibilities.
For these rhythms to generate real shifts over
the next few years, a movement of leaders,
convenors, creatives, makers, thinkers and
Horizon Three
Emerging paradigms, future
systems + consciousness
FAR
FUTURE
doers will be required. And just like some of the
responses to the Treasurer’s article, there will
be naysayers, haters, distractors and trolls. But
let’s get on with it anyway!
Because, without at least some movement
towards the kernel of each one of the themes
identified here we face futures that will be hard,
perhaps even catastrophic. Taking a position
of opening the way to engage our collective
imaginations will at least give us a way to start
opening up different possibilities.
The best time to plant a tree seed was 30
years ago, the second best time is now.
A quote sometimes linked to Confucious...
but it’s actual origins are a little unclear!
6
Nurturing Conditions for
existing saplings to flourish Seeding collective imaginations towards transitions
Biodegrading incumbent systems Seeding possibilities + creating conditions for possible futures
Recognising needs for Creating + investing in a transition seed bank that fosters Seeding possibilities: collective imagination of possible
transition + tapping into both collective imagination + experimentation futures + then creating the conditions to enable them
decline of current
systems

Seeding futures in which people,

places + the planet can thrive

Making Visible Existing Seeds + Saplings

Recognising the seeds of the future that exist in the
Supporting conditions for collective
present + fertilising them
imagination, experimentation + action

Embedding a strong culture of adaptation

NOW NEAR FAR

Learning the Territories FUTURE FUTURE
Acknowledging + learning from what has gone before
(honouring + learning from First Peoples knowledge) Figure 4: The Three Horizons Framework reimagined as creating different conditions for seeding futures
7
 Accounting for the Future
How do we build a true picture of the nation’s books – one
that reveals more than the bottom line?
“To measure what matters is also to recognise a growing consensus from
economists and investors that our economies need to embed and express
more than one notion of value. Tracking these metrics over time will give
us a more comprehensive picture of whether policies are working. But it
will also give us an evidence base from which we can have better, more
informed discussions about what needs to be done to lift living standards,
boost intergenerational mobility and broaden opportunity”.
Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

At the end of the 20th Century, John Elkington developed the

‘Triple Bottom Line’ model which became the basis for a range
“Triple Bottom Line’s stated goal from
of accounting and reporting systems from ‘full cost accounting’
the outset was system change —
to ‘integrated reporting’ and ‘multiple capital models’. In the last
pushing toward the transformation
decade there has been an explosion of different models and
of capitalism. It was never supposed
frameworks that are trying to ‘account for the future’ - from ESGs to to be just an accounting system. It
SDGs, everyone is seeking to measure what matters for wellbeing was originally intended as a genetic
and sustainability. Of course there are questions around efficacy of code, a triple helix of change for
measures, how we best use and learn from what we are measuring, tomorrow’s capitalism, with a focus
and how we measure forwards towards better futures rather than on breakthrough change, disruption,
just rely on retrospective measurement. asymmetric growth (with unsustainable
sectors actively sidelined), and the
The government’s release of the Measuring What Matters scaling of next-generation market
framework is a great step forward - recognising of course that there solutions”.
have been attempts to measure wellbeing before in Australia going John Elkington, 2018
right back to last century, but that they have not been maintained
largely because they have not had broad political commitment (see
for example, Measures of Australia’s Progress). So, perhaps the
most critical questions centre on how we agree, maintain and apply
wellbeing measures over time and across political divides to really
shift policy, grow opportunities, address challenges and commit to
learning from mistakes.

Data represents a huge new value creator. If Australia can build

the infrastructure, commit the resources needed, and grow strong,
ethical frameworks around access, availability, usability and equity,
we have the potential to seed positive futures connecting data,
measurement and opportunity.
8

The ‘Three Horizons’ can be used as
a framework for dialogue - to open up
questions + stimulate discussion across
horizons of time.
Here we have collected some key
questions that might inform some
starting points for processes of
generating collective imagination -
connected to the theme of Accounting
for the Future.
A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from our
discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.
Local &
Global Futures
How could we align the
‘measuring what matters’
framework with global
frameworks (like SDGs),
making sure that local
communities + regions
also benefit from +
access measurement
frameworks +
infrastructure to measure
what matters for them?
How might examining How might we make
the history of current current accounting + How might we not only What would it mean to What might the long
accounting frameworks reporting frameworks ‘measure’ what matters, but harness the power of data game story of data +
help us open opportunities only a part of the understand when + how to for the intergenerational accounting be?
for changing how we picture + eventually act on what we learn from wellbeing of people, place
account for our futures? biodegrade those that measurement? + planet?
are not useful?
How might learnings from
diverse histories help
account more holistically
for collective futures?
INFINITE PAST NOW
NOW NEARNEAR
FUTURE
NEAR FAR FUTURE
FAR INFINITE FUTURE
FUTURE
FUTURE FUTURE
How might First People’s knowledge of Figure 5: The Three Horizons Framework stretches out to pasts + futures
wellbeing that connects people + country
shape a remembering of the future?
Power to Open Data + Leveraging Deepening
People Measures Technology Accounting &
How could we grow with Care Accountability
How could we build
a nation of ‘citizen
on Open Data, to How could decisions How could accounting
researchers + learners’
make measurement about measurement frameworks support
- putting the power over
data in the hands of infrastructure freely + data maximise the ‘action on what matters’
citizens AND creating available for the public potential of technology by building in transparent
infrastructure that enables good, encouraging to create economic + incentives, accountability
citizens to access, use, transparency, ethics, social opportunities mechanisms + flags
share measures + data learning + innnovation? + minimise potential when measures
that matter to them,
harms from bias + deficit indicate challenges or
growing the picture of
data? deterioration of wellbeing
what matters from the
ground up? or sustainability?
9
 “I know from my own community in Logan, south of Brisbane, how unjust it is that people who live on the outskirts of capital cities
and in some regional areas experience much more inequality than other citizens. But this injustice presents an opportunity: to
focus our attention on place-based initiatives where communities have the genuine input, local leadership, resources and authority
to define a new and better future, especially for kids”. Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

Intergenerational Wellbeing of Places & Communities

How do we nurture positive futures in place, caring for Country, protecting our diverse ecosystems and
ensuring that future generations will thrive in vibrant, healthy communities?

People live in, work in, care in, places and
communities. Those places are embedded in Country,
in ecosystems, in landscapes that people know and
care for, which define their lives and their prospects.
In recent times Australia has seen the impacts of
climate and biodiversity crises in specific places - who
can forget the fires in places like Kinglake, Mallacoota,
Bega Valley, Beechmont, and the floods in Lismore,
Bundaberg, the Lockyer Valley and in the Kimberley
to name just a few. Communities bear the brunt
of ecological, economic, and social shifts. Places
represent the face of pressures as climate changes,
supply chains strain and housing crises worsen.
It is no wonder then that ‘place-based’ approaches
have become common for delivery of services,
engagement of populations and transition activities.
Place-based policy is increasingly recognising the
importance of context in creating positive social and
health outcomes, and is building on evidence that
community participation and collaboration can be
an important part of achieving better outcomes for
children and families.
There is, however, a need for some deeper integrated
thinking and action around how we ensure that places
and communities across Australia can continue to
create opportunities for future generations. We need
bold ideas and actions to ensure that places and
communities can support thriving ecosystems; provide
opportunities for good, quality jobs in strong local
economies; develop robust social fabrics; offer access
to effective support networks; promise equitable
availability of housing, education and health services;
and secure affordable, high speed communications
services that enable distributed opportunities across
this vast continent.

“Imagination is often referred to as a sort of solo activity — authors, artists — but what we’ve found is really
key to creativity is that it’s a collective imagination process. It’s the magic of creating together.”
10 Phoebe Tickell, Moral Imagination, 2022
 Pockets of the Future in the Past + Present
The ‘Firesticks Alliance’ is a growing movement that seeks to spread not only these practices but grow intergenerational wellbeing in First
Nations communities, and nurture and protect ecologies. The Firesticks Alliance is an example of how holistic wellbeing can be practiced -
and how ‘wellbeing’ could take us to places far beyond what is currently imagined in mainstream articulations of the concepts.

The Firesticks Alliance Indigenous Corporation provides
Indigenous leadership, advocacy and action to protect, conserve
and enhance cultural and natural values of people and Country
through cultural fire and land management practices.
Firesticks aims to re-invigorate the use of cultural burning
by facilitating cultural learning pathways to fire and land
management.
It is an initiative for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to look
after Country, share their experiences and collectively explore
ways to achieve their goals.
Firesticks is an opportunity for people to build on the knowledge
they already have on Country and look for ways to make use of
new technologies and understandings as a way to support cultural
identity and practice.
Firesticks ultimately strives to empower Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal communities to work together towards healthy,
functional and resilient landscapes.
Firesticks is facilitating training, implementing on-ground works and
conducting scientific monitoring to establish a greater understanding of
the ecological impact of cultural burning practices.
The program aims to work with fire to enhance ecosystem health by
improving habitat condition and connectivity within culturally connected
landscapes. The integration of social and ecological elements is
driving a deeper approach to wellbeing.
Firesticks Alliance
https://www.firesticks.org.au/

A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from
our discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.

Locally-led Beyond Projects Real Community Resourcing

Wellbeing
Indicators
How could we connect
national indicators for
wellbeing with locally-led
frameworks measuring,
monitoring + learning
from what matters at a
local, community level
creating the foundation
for rich, adaptive +
engaging approaches to
wellbeing?
11
+ Pilots
How could we go
beyond small + pilot
projects to grow
wellbeing through bold,
far-sighted, long-term,
holistic + developmental
approaches; including
opening up what they may
look like + what they may
focus on?
Governance
How could we grow
democratic futures
in Australia through
a radical revision of
grass-roots governance
that is more than local
boards, committees and
meetings so that genuine,
democratic opportunities
for diverse communities
to have a voice are
established?
Local Adaptation
Infrastructures
How could we resource
local infrastructures
that enable decision-
making, data + learning
to encourage locally-led
adaptation in the face of
climate crises and the
wellbeing challenges this
generates?
 Systemic Capital
How do we enable the flow of the vast resources
needed to enable coherent, collective effort, and
shared pursuit of bold, holistic goals?
Capital is a fundamental enabler of innovation and action
- whether that capital is public, private community and/or
collective. Capital markets have been a primary building
block of the modern, global economy. However, as it
becomes increasingly clear that these economic systems
need to be rewired to mitigate existential risks to human
wellbeing and the health of the planet, paradigms around
the purpose and application of capital are also shifting.
Around the world, and in Australia, governments, financial
institutions, businesses, non-profit entities, philanthropists,
individuals, and communities, are experimenting with
different ways to access, structure, and blend finance
to enable transitions and collective betterment. These
developments, such as impact investment, are promising,
but not yet sufficient.
Too few resources are finding their way to actors and
activities that have the potential to create real positive
impact, and those that do often fail to foster enduring and
coherent change. So, beyond the need to increase the
flow of resources towards creating better futures, there
also needs to be new thinking in respect to how those
resources are allocated, managed, and governed.
Indeed, while there is a growing realisation that complex
challenges require ‘systems of interventions and system
innovation’ (Johar, 2017), we are not yet investing with
that mindset. Yes, we are seeing financial capital move
12
“Across the social purpose economy, in areas such as aged care,
education and disability, effective organisations with high-quality talent
can offer decent returns and demonstrate a social dividend - but they
find it hard to grow because they find it hard to get investors. Right
now, the market framework that would enable that investment in effect
doesn’t properly exist” Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’
towards impact goals through fields like impact investment, but
the mechanics of allocation remain largely the same, focused on
generating ‘pipelines’, cherry-picking deals, and growing portfolios
of ‘single point solutions’ (Gurciullo, 2021).
Impact Investment is built out of the first horizon and helps
us to move towards second horizons. However, while such
approaches (whether they be commercial, public, philanthropic
or community-based in nature) are enabling many good things to
happen, they will not foster the trajectories and scale of change
we need. As a result, we are missing opportunities to harness
collective efforts that exist across people, enterprises, projects,
and institutions wanting to achieve common goals, and limiting
our potential for transformation. To shift towards second and third
horizon trajectories we need to think more about systemic capital
and transformational investment - including using emerging
instruments such as co-operative shares, debentures and co-
operative capital units (eg. see https://tinyurl.com/2p8yn5nc) - and
stretch our imaginations beyond the orthodoxies of current market
mechanisms and assumptions.
“What we need now is a radically new approach to investing with the explicit aim
of systems transformation - one that deploys capital with a broader intent and
mindset; that is anchored in different methodologies, structures, capabilities,
and decision-making frameworks; and that moves away from a project-by-
project mentality...What matters is that investment decisions are based on an
understanding of how such impact will emerge at the system level, not just at
the level of a single project or transaction”.
Dominic Hoffstetter, Transformation Capital, Climate KIC, 2020
 Below is an imaginary group of systemic investment portfolios for Logan - through which we can see how three ‘outcome’ arenas - affordable housing, green
energy and local jobs could spark a range of investment opportunities - all generating value across the outcomes, but not all having the potential to deliver
stellar monetary returns. If we are to really develop systemic investment approaches, we need to imagine such scenarios, test them, try them, learn and grow
them.

Local Job
Creation
Incentives
Green
Small
Energy Solar + Business
Wind Retrofit Development
Farm Trade Infrastructure
Training Local
Courses
Jobs
Micro-grid
Cooperative
Housing New
Retrofit Construction
Local Power Enterprise Trade
Company Green Training
Infrastructure intake
Development
Contract
Conservation Self-Build
Park + Forest
Cooperative
Finance
Ownership
Development
Infrastructure Rent-to-Buy
Community Affordable Scheme
Infrastructure Green Housing
Investment
Fund
Joint Equity
Scheme
Growing
Maker Affordable
Library Space
Housing in
Logan
Figure 6: Imagining systemic capital in Logan, Queensland

13
 Multiple Asset +
Outcome Multiplier Impact Investment has helped to There is growing recognition that transitions to
Approaches
A set of potential challenge asset classes, what is regenerative futures require fundamental changes -
territories for collective
How could we drive
private + public
‘investable’ + what should be included moving beyond investment orthodoxies +
imagination + investment away from a as a ‘return. It is a good start, but not challenging some core economic tenets so that
deliberation: in these focus on single assets,
deals and investable enough to take us forward... investment is able to sustain intergenerational
cards we have drawn
some starting points
projects, towards systemic
capital that takes as its
wellbeing
from our discussion starting point an outcome
‘field’ where the outcomes
with the group and intersect + multiply in
from research that relation to each other?
could form the basis
of questions for
deliberations on this
From
theme. Segmentation
to Integration of
Markets + Capital
How could we incentivise
‘integrated’ investment,
drawing together private,
public and civic capital
to focus on maximising
+ multiplying benefits,
outcomes + value
creation?

Value + Outcome
as Focus of
Portfolio
Composition
How could we focus
portfolio composition on
total value + outcomes
- so that they become
much more driven by their NOW NEAR FUTURE NEAR
catalytic potential than
their risk/return profiles, FUTURE
creating opportunities to Figure 7: Impact Investment is a good start but it is not robust enough to help us transition into positive futures
drive transformation away
14 from polycrisis?
 “It’s not just our economic institutions that need renewing and restructuring, but our
markets as well. Here, government has a leadership role to play: defining priorities,
challenges and missions - not ‘picking winners’. This is critical to guide how we design
markets, facilitate flows of capital into priority areas, and ultimately make progress on
our collective problems and purpose”. Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

Transforming Markets & Supply Chains

How do we transform markets for public, common and planetary good? How might transformed markets build more
resilient, less fragile supply chains whilst also ensuring stronger wellbeing for people, places & the planet?

In order to create the sort of transformative change that is
needed in this age of ‘polycrisis’, governments have been
challenged to see their role as less ‘market fixing’ and more
‘market shaping and creating’ (see the work of Mariana
Mazzucato in particular). Creating strong incentives and
constraints within an agenda of inclusive and sustainable
growth is a critical role for governments - particularly in an
era where corporate and shareholder power is challenging
some of the fundamentals of democratic rule.
The experience of a global pandemic, and increasingly
strong ecological signals, indicate the need to challenge
some of the fundamentals of economic thinking, and more
particularly, neoliberal economic orthodoxies. We need to
think afresh about the role, the capacities and the capabilities
that government, business and civil society must cultivate
and resource in order to be able to make their contributions
to transitions and transformations.
The public sector in particular has a significant shaping,
steering, and creating role to play given the levers available
- such as policy, public investment, regulation and tax
incentives.
No doubt technology will both generate and potentially
support market and supply chain transformations.
However, we need the available levers to shape these
technologies so that they support democratic, equitable
and sustainable futures; and stop relying on the interests
of individual firms and/or ‘the market’ to determine our
societal trajectories. Here consideration of platform
ownership offers a useful entry point for exploration (see
for example https://platform.coop/).
We have an extraordinary opportunity to harness
technology for the public, common and planetary
good over coming decades - but we must urgently and
decisively grow democratic institutions and equip them
with the guardrails that will ensure this opportunity is
harnessed and directed towards inclusive and
sustainable futures.

“The common good is a shared objective. By emphasizing the how as much as the what, it offers opportunities to promote
human solidarity, knowledge sharing, and collective distribution of rewards. It is the best – indeed the only – way to ensure a
decent quality of life for everyone on an interconnected planet” Mariana Mazzucato, Project Syndicate, January 2023.
15
 Below is a continuum of procurement policies and practices that shows both the current evolution of procurement as a lever for equity and
impact, but also illustrates the next potential evolution needed to really imagine procurement as creating regenerative value. This image
was developed by Griffith Centre for Systems Innovation and Ethical Fields for City of Newcastle’s Localising Supply Chains 2022 project.

focus Optimising positive

e
Opportunities for transforming
s valu impacts for people, place
conventional ‘price-based’ pact a
Im + planet through value
procurement policies + procedures
chains + supply chains

Opportunities for growing + strengthening regenerative

focus supply + value chains to optimise total value creation
e
valu
e as
ic
Pr ‘Do no harm’ ‘Regenerative Value’
‘Additional Value’

Conventional Sustainable Social Impact Supply Chains

Procurement Procurement Procurement
Optimising value as Sustainable development Corporations use their Purchasing entity (or collaboration
price. Though ‘value + CSR movements saw buying power to of entities) configure their supply
for money’ has been increased pressure on generate social value chain management policies +
broadened, much corporations to take more above + beyond the practices so existing budgets can
conventional responsibility for value of the goods, be harnessed to foster, maintain +
procurement practice services, or construction grow supply networks that
does not focus on environmental + social
strategic approaches to impacts generated being procured. intentionally contribute to
value creation. through business models. generating specific social,
environmental, cultural +/or local
16 Figure 8: Scenarios for supply chain futures on a continuum economic objectives.
 A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from our
discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.

Incentivising Long Local First Critical Industry Transparency

Term Markets
How could we use
levers such as taxation
to incentivise long-
term investment
+ disincentivise
speculation + short-
termism in markets?
How could we foster an
approach of subsidiarity
(the principle that
specific issues are best
managed at the most
local level possible) by
growing and deepening
local supply chains
particularly for critical
supplies?
Planning
How could we
plan + test supply
chain diversification
opportunities for critical
industries including
reshoring, nearshoring,
local supply and value
chains that could support
other goals such as
energy transition?
Matters
How could we grow +
incentivise supply chain
transparency, including
through technologies
such as blockchain,
to promote ethical,
sustainable supply chains
+ to understand key risks
to supply disruption +
plan alternatives?

Pockets of the Future in the Past + Present

G21 Regional Opportunities For Work
(GROW) is an initiative of Give Where You
Live Foundation and G21 – Geelong Region
Alliance. The initiative aims to change the way
the whole region procures and operates to buy
and employ locally and improve the economic
and social prosperity of the region, by giving
a chance to job seekers who are missing out.
The network has around 130 signatories who
have committed to shift the ways in which they
procure and spend to create opportunities
for people and places in the region who have
experienced ongoing challenges.
The four ways in which GROW has used
procurement initiatives to shift opportunities
focus on:
• Spending Locally – fostering commitments
to buying from local businesses to help the
local economy and create jobs;
• Spending Socially – growing opportunities to
buy from businesses who employ from GROW
communities;
• Being Inclusive – creating safe and supportive
workplaces for all; and
• Advocating and Collaborating – for region
wide change, and to strengthen the GROW
network.
These actions help GROW Signatories,
and the system stakeholders they engage, to
enable the movement of knowledge, the movement
of talent and the movement of capital.
GROW’s work in local procurement demonstrates
that for every dollar GROW Signatories spent with
local G21 suppliers, $2.04 is generated in the local
economy. The direct impact of signatory local spend
helps to support jobs and industry. However, this
under counts the full benefit to the local community.
Local benefit multipliers occur when spend is made
with locally owned and independent businesses.
That spend is recirculated through the local
economy at 2-4 times the amount, than money
spent with non-local companies. As this spend
moves through the community, it generates more
local wealth, charitable contributions, and jobs.
At a macro level, GROW has shifted the way
government procures, particularly on major project
spends. They have piloted a social procurement
approach for inclusive employment and targets,
which includes paid pre-employment training,
an on-site mentor and wrap around supports
throughout a candidate’s placement. The model is
included in a tenders’ scope of works and requires
bidders to price this into their application. Penalties
also apply if the social procurement targets are not
delivered.
See the GROW report card, 2022 17
“(We aim for) growth that puts equality and equal opportunity at the centre. This is not only fair, it’s good economic
policy. ...Our goal here is secure, well-paid jobs, but also getting our human capital right more broadly - seeing
productivity and participating as a function of investing in people, especially their capacity to adapt and adopt new
technology” Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

Quality Jobs in the Future of Work

How do we ensure that economic transformation over coming years builds strong foundations for
quality jobs that provide living wages, fair conditions and opportunities for people, families and
places?

Job creation is regularly called out as critical
to the creation of strong national and local
economies — particularly at times of crisis or
recovery. The mantra of “jobs, jobs, jobs” has
once again been loud after the pandemic, and in
the face of the ongoing economic uncertainty.
However, there is also a growing recognition
that focusing just on growing the number of
jobs will not necessarily lead to either improved
economic or social outcomes (see for example
OECD,2020).
What is increasingly called for is a focus on the
quality of jobs needed to promote the wellbeing
of workers and their families.
There are pockets of innovation in various corners
of the globe that have created a solid evidence
and policy base for a focus on quality jobs — but
we are a long way from the dominant narrative
focusing on quality over the quantum of jobs.
Despite this gap, it is clear that evidence points to the
inherent connections between quality jobs, physical
and mental health, wellbeing and even positive
intergenerational outcomes.
What is also increasingly evident is that quality
jobs can have broader benefits for businesses and
organisations; places and communities; and ultimately
could have profound implications for regenerative and
distributive futures and the health of our planet.
“Low quality jobs can hinder economic growth and
strain public budgets. Low quality jobs may be designed
to minimize labor cost for an individual business
and accommodate high turnover. Such jobs limit the
purchasing power of a large segment of consumers,
reducing the strength of the economy as a whole. … In
contrast, good quality jobs invest in human capability,
boost productivity, and provide workers with the resources
to express their wants in the market in the form of
consumer demand without having to rely on means-tested
benefits” Aspen Institute, (2021).
18

Imagining quality jobs in the
future of work requires us to
think much more broadly about
the role quality jobs have in
relation to workers, families,
communities, businesses
and organisation, places /
communities and the planet.
Here we have summarised the
potential impacts that quality
jobs have at each these levels
- this is further explored in this
blog.
Figure 9: Potential impacts of quality
jobs beyond the individual worker
19
For workers, quality jobs are linked to:
Financial Security
Economic Certainty
Physical + Mental Health
Access to Safe + Stable Housing
Community Participation
Quality of Life
Potential for Self Development
Q
u a lit y J o
b
For families, quality jobs are linked to:
Financial Security + Financial Stress
Frequency that employment anxiety interferes with
family life or results in family stress
Family Stability
Access to Safe + Stable Housing
Intergenerational Wellbeing
Intergenerational Opportunities for Work + Education
Mental + Socio-Emotional Development Outcomes
for Children
For businesses + organisations, quality jobs are
linked to:
Productivity + Longevity
Customer / Client Service
Employee Recruitment +
Retention
Adaptability + Viability
For places, quality jobs are linked to:
Community Participation
Local Economic Demand + More Diverse Local Economy
Connection + Commitment of People + Families to Place
Community Wealth which is reinvested + supports better
infrastructure
Opportunities for local residents
Social Cohesion
For the future of our planet, quality jobs have
potential to:
Foster sunrise industry development
Contribute to decarbonising the economy
Create opportunities for future generations through decent
work in sunrise industries
Generate opportunities for alternative opportunities if jobs
are automated
 A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from our
discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.

Green + Gold Quality Jobs Quality Employee Voice Quality + Inclusion

Jobs Plan Index Care Jobs + Ownership in Reporting
How could we create How could a ‘Quality How could we ensure How could we support How could corporate
a living ‘Green + Gold Jobs Index’ be created that jobs in the care + incentivise business reporting (such as ESG
Jobs Plan’ which that would start tracking industries (whether models + structures that or integrated reporting)
identifies, incentivises job quality, tracing how that be care in terms of grow ownership + asset focus not just on a
+ promotes sunrise it impacts different health, children, elderly development rights, in company’s ‘external’
industries where quality sectors, industries and/or care for Country) addition to stakeholder impacts, but the internal
jobs are being + will be + people + be made represent quality jobs participation + voice conditions for staff +
created over the next transparent to stimulate in terms of income, - such as employee workers, making inclusion
decade? market responses and conditions, training and ownership + cooperative + equity in employment
a race to the top across progression? structures? a key part of corporate
industries? reporting?

Employee Stock Diversity

Conditions Ownership Programs
(ESOPS) Sustainability
Income Gold Star Jobs: Progression Equity
Quality Green Jobs:
of Life + Social Enterprise Preserve
Stability Worker Owned High Quality Jobs
Health Restore Shared Value
Quality Support Enterprises Regenerate Inclusion Participation
Outcomes B Corps Stability
Job
Green + Gold Jobs Plan:
Incentivising business structures
Quality Jobs as a Public Health issue Incentivising + promoting sunrise
+ strategies that promote Making inclusion + equity in
critical to intergenerational employee ownership, asset industries where quality jobs are employment central to corporate +
Engaged, Valued
Workforce
well-being development + voice created + regenerated institutional reporting

Good for Complementarities

Jobs Mean Good Business Consumers
Well-being Stakeholder Working Environment Good
Focused State Centred Business Quality Spillovers
New Social Contract that Increased
Good for Quality Jobs Stronger Local
positively connects workers, Earnings Labour Market Workers in Care Good for
Demand
Value Chains
business + State Quality Security Business Increased Productivity
Mapping Quality Jobs across geographies, New Multipliers calculating total
A quality jobs index that makes populations, genders, ethncities, ages + Incentivising quality jobs in essential
benefits + costs of investment into local
Figure 9: Potential starting points for visible the quality of jobs across race + the infrastructure to act on + especially care industries: health,
projects - away from trade-offs
industries + sectors inequities children, elderly, Country
creating futures for quality jobs towards spillovers
20
 “People...(have an) appetite for a more conscious sense of wellbeing...(one of) the key lessons
of the pandemic: that healthy economies rely on healthy people and communities. The old
mental models die hard, even while they were shown to be so inadequate for the new problems
they left us: skills shortages, an aged-care crisis...etc” Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

A Diverse Care Economy that Really Cares

How do we cultivate a care economy that genuinely values and supports caregivers, promotes
wellbeing for care recipients, and builds a more compassionate and equitable society?

One of the shifts the global pandemic has
catalysed is a deeper recognition and appreciation
of the critical role of care workers in society. The
pandemic has not only raised the profile of the care
sectors, it has generated widespread discussions
about the need to improve their working conditions
and the overall care infrastructure. In Australia
the so called ‘care economy’ covers sectors such
as aged care, disability services, family services,
child care, social housing, homelessness services,
mental health services - it employs around
1.8million people, and is the fastest growing
employing sector (Care Economy CRC, 2022).
It is also likely to continue to expand and face
significant challenges as the population ages and
demands increase.
Government is a major investor in and provider of
services within the care economy, in addition to
playing a significant role in regulation and quality
assurance. In many ways, for much of this growing
part of the economy Government has played a
major shaping, creating, designing role - and has
led the development of markets within care sectors.
21
The care sector plays a crucial role in supporting
individuals, families and communities, enabling
economic, social and workforce participation,
and contributing to the overall wellbeing of the
Australian population. Yet this sector faces some
major challenges over coming decades - around
workforce availability, structure and capability, the
quality of services and community expectations,
and the availability, use and integration of
technology into various sectors. The care
economy is highly feminised in terms of the labour
force - and, as was highlighted in the Ageing
Royal Commission, it is plagued by lower than
average incomes and poor working conditions.
Further, measures such as productivity in this
sector of the economy are woefully inadequate
- it is quality of care and outcomes for people
and families that we need to measure and report
on as key measures of success, not outputs
per hour. Essentially, if the care economy is to
contribute to equity, wellbeing and sustainability
we will need to ensure that it truly is about care
and caring.

What if...
The care economy offered
access to high quality training +
education for all workers + care
recipients?
What if...
Participation, inclusion + equity
were integral to the design +
delivery of all levels of care? What if...
The care economy became the
sector of choice for workers seeking
holistic recognition + rewards

d?
through employment?

re
What if...
Participation,

a
yC
People could access a lifetime care
Inclusion, Equity Formal budget + use these to choose
Training, Education, elements of care from across formal

all

Ca
+ informal sectors?
Skills

Re

ring
What if...

for
ies Informal care provision was
recognised as generating social

Co
+ economic value?

un
nom

try
Ch Informal
ild
Ca
OMY
Wellbeing
re
Eco

N
What if...

O
We valued the wellbeing of care
Social Care recipients, care givers + families
+ Welfare Workforce
re

within the care economy?

CARE EC
Economic
What If Ca

What if...
The financial returns with the
Health Care care economy were only one of
the value measures?

Care Recipients What if...

Care
We were to account for the social
d Value Creation
Age
value created through a thriving
care economy across
Social generations?

What if...
Infrastructure Investment We established systemic investment
Public models that could generate value from
What if...
investing in care across life-cycles?
We created more opportunities for
cooperatively + diversely owned What if...
infrastructure that generates social capital Long-term ‘patient’ investment into care
across care? ecosystems was incentivised over
What if... short-term, maximised financial returns?
Technological infrastructure enabled Private Civic
cross-generational opportunities for
What if...
We could receive integrated reports
deeper whole-of-life care?
detailing holistic value creation across
What if... Social Technological Institutional different types of capital to get a better
Distributed institutional infrastructure that picture of investment flows into care?
is embedded in place enabled people to
access care in their communities across
22 their lifetimes? Figure 11: Dimensions for re-imagining a care economy that really cares
 A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from our
discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.

Care Better Collaboration Focus on Quality Jobs Growing Caring

Infrastructures
How could care
infrastructures
be reimagined +
transformed to ensure
that care industries
promote equity,
accessiblity, affordability
and quality for both
carers + care recipients?
Integration +
Diversity
How could collaboration,
integration + holistic
approaches be
stimulated + incentivised
to create stronger
pathways + navigation
across care sectors +
ensuring responsiveness
to diversity + quality
outcomes?
Prevention +
Ecosystems of Care
How could stronger
prevention
infrastructure be built
into the care system,
which recognises
and invests in social
determinants of health,
wellbeing promotion +
ecosystems of care?
in + for Care
How could quality
jobs be mandated +
promoted across the
care economy so that
quality is embedded not
just for care recipients
but for care givers too?
Business Models
How could business
models + structures that
enable caring cultures +
engender the business
of caring, such as
cooperatives, employee
owned businesses,
networked organisations
be grown + scaled?

Pockets of the Future in the Present

Social care mutuals deliver social care through co-operative or mutual
structures. This means that members of the organisations, who can
be the consumers, the carers, the community or any combination
of these, are involved in decision-making and benefit from its
activities, including through the reinvestment of trading surplus.
Co-operatives and mutuals operate in aged care and disability services,
community health, First Nations services and social housing. Co-
operative and mutual structures can increase diversity and choice
in health, community and social services with positive outcomes for
accountability, innovation, quality and productivity.
The Co-operative and Mutual Enterprises Support Program (Care
Together) is Australia’s first co-operative and mutual enterprise
support program in social care.
Care Together will help improve the quality and diversity of services
provided to older Australians, people living with disability, and
veterans in remote and regional areas and other areas of high need.
23
The program is designed as a cross-sector, place-based program using human-
centred co-design methods to demonstrate innovative ways to improve service
quality and safety in priority areas, including aged care, disability care, veterans
care, allied health, and primary care.
The Business Council for Cooperatives and Mutuals (BCCM) will work with
communities to co-design social care projects in areas deemed by the Royal
Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety most in need. These include
rural, remote, and regional communities, Indigenous services, and more housing
options allowing people to ‘age well’ in community settings.
The BCCM is funded by the Department of Health and Aged Care to establish
a national support program to advise communities on how to start new co-
operatives in aged care and other care sectors and help existing co-operatives to
grow.
For examples of how cooperatives overseas have become a critical part of
care infrastructures see: https://cecop.coop/works/italian-social-cooperatives-
celebrate-their-30th-anniversary and https://www.shaw.co.uk/
 “(We need) an orderly energy and climate transition, with implications for living costs, employment, where and
how we live, the commercialisation of technology and the trajectory of our economic development. This means
introducing cleaner, cheaper, more reliable and increasingly renewable energy, and adopting practices and
technologies that limit our emissions. All while creating new industries, empowering workers and regions, and
leveraging our traditional strengths” Jim Chalmers (2023) ‘Capitalism After The Crisis’

Just Energy Transitions

How do we ensure a just energy transition in Australia that is tailored to the unique circumstances of
Australia, considering its vast geography, diverse communities and ecologies, and its specific energy
challenges and opportunities?

Australia has long been described as the ‘lucky country’ - with Shifts in ways people produce, consume + value energy. Low-carbon energy
a wealth of natural resources, including energy sources, and a transitions are shifts from high-carbon energy sources (oil, gas, coal) to low +
zero carbon energy sources (renewables)
strong, democratic commitment to sharing the opportunities this
has afforded. This has, however, also had profound implications
Energy Transition
for First Nations communities who have not always benefited
from this wealth (despite being the custodians of the land from
which this wealth has been derived), and on the environment -
through both extraction and consumption practices.

Transitioning to clean energy, low carbon industries and

economies, in the relatively short window of time available
to prevent deeper climate crises, is already creating both Just Energy Transition
challenges and opportunities for Australia and the world.
Quality Jobs in low Economic
Ensuring that this transition is timely and just is critical. This carbon growth Participation + opportunities
includes ensuring that access to the opportunities the transition sectors voice in for those
will no doubt afford are shared, and that they speed the closing decision-making impacted most
of the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. Affordability +
Accessibility
The next decade represents a critical period for designing,
building, and operationalising energy transitions in Australia. It
is perhaps the greatest opportunity that Australia has ever had to Environmental
Justice + Fairness
transform both the economy, the social contract, the commitment
to environmental sustainability - and most importantly, to Equitable sharing of the benefits, costs, risks + opportunities in the energy transition
demonstrate reconciliation.
24 Figure 12: Framing a ‘just’ energy transition compared to a ‘business-as-usual’ energy transition.
 Directional Policy
Economist Carlotta Perez is a specialist in the history Structures

of technical change and its impact on economic

growth and development (Perez, 2004, 2022). She Social Labour
argues that major transitions such as the energy Safety
Nets
Institutional Organisation

transition we are starting to experience always involve Socio-political Socio-

ideas + institutional
technological, economic and institutional shifts. behaviours frameworks

In discussions about the energy transitions we often Demand

Impetus +
Directional
Impetus +
focus only on the technological and economic shifts, Enablers Enablers

and institutional shifts are either left out or thought to Incentive

Revolutionary
Transitions Innovation

be determined by the other two domains.

Structures Economic Technological Ecosystems

Production Innovation Technological

Capital Impetus + Revolutions
Enablers
Re-imagining the institutional infrastructure and the
Techno-economic
nature of the innovations we need to construct these Financial
Capital paradigms

could be the basis for challenging and interesting Enabling

Research +
Development
public deliberation. Market
Structures
Structures

Directional Capital
Procurement Availability
Structures + Flow

Figure 13: Transitions always include three core domains (based on Carlotta Perez, 2002)

A set of potential territories for collective imagination + deliberation: in these cards we have drawn some starting points from our
discussion with the group and from research that could form the basis of questions for deliberations on this theme.

Equity as Central Skills + Jobs Regional + Local + National Measured

How could we ensure
that the transition is
just + equitable - taking
consideration of flows
of costs, opportunities,
benefits at all stages, +
investing in promoting
equity in spaces such
as housing retrofitting +
efficiency, job training, +
access to new technology
in particular?
25
Revolution
How could integrated
and emergent jobs +
skills planning help to
map + develop worker
transitions, responsive +
adaptive skills + education
offerings, harnessing of
platforms + technologies
for generating workforce
development +
opportunities for emerging
industries?
International Independence Benefits
Leadership How could integrated
measurement
How could Australia How could incentivising frameworks help track
become a regional + diversified energy mixes, + share benefits of
international leader of the local grids, community the transition across
transition, benefiting both ownership models and environmental, economic,
future development of co-investment models social, health indicators,
Australia + also becom- promote resilient energy including emissions,
ing a supplier + promoter infrastructure at national job creation, public
of energy transitions in and local levels? health improvement,
the Asia-Pacific region? protection of ecosystems
+ biodiversity?
Pockets of the Future in the Present
Community Power Agency (CPA) are working
to create a clean energy future that benefits and What is
involves all Australians. They provide expert made
advice and support to communities, organisations, visible as
government and industry in developing community ‘innovation’
owned renewable energy and more broadly a faster Technological
and fairer clean energy transition. CPA works closely Technological
Innovation Changes
with project partners to improve the social outcomes
of renewable energy development for communities,
regulators and developers. They are leaders in
corporate benefit-sharing and community engagement
practices within the sector and are committed to
ensuring a fair and equitable transition to a clean First: Industrial Revolution Second: Age of Steam
energy economy. (Britain) ~ 1771 (Britain to Europe to USA) from
1829
Enabling participation in the energy transition Private Property
is fundamental to its work. Through workshops Social Innovation
Agricultural Protection Institutional Growth of Institutional
Charity - private +
Public Innovation Enclosure of Land
Changes
Revolution public
and trainings, CPA has supported more than 50 Civic Innovation Demand
Enablers Clearances + Poor Laws +
community energy groups to take the power back and Increased food Mass Migration to
Growing rural +
regulation of poverty
Money to purchase urban poverty
develop and deliver their own clean energy project; manufactured goods
production Urban Centres
Mass Urban Creation of an Urban
they have contributed to the growth in community Housing Labour Force
Growth of Mutual Aid
Cooperatives
Surplus food
energy initiatives across Australia, where there + income
Development Voluntary Philanthropy

are now more than 110 groups and 150 projects Social
operating. An often invisible Changes Economic Demand for reforms

Changes in Company Act

context that Shift in work from
home to factory
Boom in capital
CPA also works closely with governments to develop included many Shifts in family markets
Voting Reforms
Shifts in transfer of Political shifts to
policies and programs that are both inclusive and structures

sustainable, with the objective to improve outcomes

other ‘innovations’ knowledge - craft
guilds to production
Shifts in
Burgeoning middle
class
merchant cities

both enabling technological techniques

gender roles
for all Australians and our environment by setting the innovation plus being driven by it
agenda and making community energy a priority in
the political and social landscape.

CPA is a Workers Cooperative registered in NSW Figure 14: Every transition requires innovation but not only in the form of technological innovation - it is
with the Department of Fair Trading; and a registered just as important to foster innovation of institutions, societal processes, and economies as can be seen as
charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profit underpinning the industrial revolution in the UK (based on Carlotta Perez, 2002).
Commission.

26
“The virus is rewriting our imaginations. What
felt impossible has become thinkable. We’re
getting a different sense of our place in history.
We know we’re entering a new world, a new era.
And we seem to be learning our way into a new
structure of feeling.”
Kim Stanley Robinson, 2020
Towards Growing Collective Imagination Capabilities
By exploring each of the seven themes – delving into core questions,
perspectives on the Territory, starting points for sense-making, and Territories for
deliberation – and looking at where some potential pockets-of-the-future already
exist we hope to have sown some imagination-seeds for meaningful next steps.
As mentioned, citizen juries or assemblies, participatory budgeting initiatives,
and the deliberative democracy movement more broadly offer useful insights and
tools for engaging broader participation in imagining and enacting futures. Whilst
previously there has been some ad hoc activity in Australia, as far as we can tell
there has been no systematic attempt to test various models being used around
the world in our local context.
For imagination-starters around this, the OECD’s 2020 publication Innovative
Citizens Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative
Wave is a useful resource – it draws on almost 300 examples of deliberative
practices, and exploring “the reasons and routes for embedding deliberative
activities into public institutions to give citizens a more permanent and meaningful
role in shaping the policies affecting their lives”.
However, as we identified earlier, we also think there is a significant opportunity
to strengthen collective imagination towards positive futures through engaging
with a broader range of methods – such as uncovering narratives about collective
futures; Imaginariums; Speculative Futures writing and arts festivals; serious
imagination games; distributed collective futures festivals; and intentional
‘growing imagination capabilities’ initiatives (see p.5 for more).
Fostering diverse participation and learning towards how to do this at scale will
strengthen our democratic system through enshrining at its centre a fuller range
of perspectives and realities. Whilst the task can seem daunting, we advocate a
process of starting small, testing, learning and iterating the ways forward.
In addition to thickening ties with local citizens and building capabilities
that underpin resilience characteristics, deliberative processes also offer
policymakers a ‘people-powered tool’ that reduces reliance on the reports of
consulting firms and strengthen the critical notion of public service.
27
Our commitment to planting seeds...
Fostering bold and collective imagination and creativity
will take time, space and practice.
We’ll need to support and stoke imagination equally
amongst citizens and the public sector.
There is no shortage of this creativity, just a lack of
‘infrastructure’ that supports it to be heard, explored and
channelled.
In this booklet we’ve explored some possible steps
towards engaging and harnessing our collective
imaginations, to support the acceleration of transitions
towards positive futures.
We think the Treasurer’s own electorate (where we
happen to be based!) would be an excellent place to test
some of these steps - whilst also generating a broader
conversation about the role of collective imagination
in shaping democratic, values-based capitalism and
wellbeing.
We commit to reaching out to the Treasurer’s Electorate
Office, and to our wide network of local stakeholders,
with the aim of catalysing action around fostering
collective imagination experiments within the Logan
place-based context; and to sharing learnings outwards.
We offer a foundation - a step towards engaging and
harnessing our collective imaginations.
And we make a commitment to taking these
foundations and demonstrating them in action, in the
Treasurer’s own electorate - will you join us Jim?
“The moral imagination requires the capacity to
imagine ourselves in a web of relationships that
includes our enemies; the ability to sustain a
paradoxical curiosity that embraces complexity
without reliance on dualistic polarity; the
fundamental belief in and pursuit of the creative
act; and the acceptance of the inherent risk of
stepping into the mystery of the unknown that lies
beyond the far too familiar landscape of violence”
John Paul Lederach, 2005
“This is the complex nature of a time between
worlds. It asks us to sit with the unthinkable,
with yet un-worded sensations; while old stories
still hold us hostage; with the pull of the abyss
within us. These threshold-times will not relent
to a nostalgic past nor will they release anyone
from unknowable futures - so learn to sit and
withstand we must. ... Reimagining the enabling
conditions (from those elusive social imaginaries
to concrete spaces to binding legal frameworks to
the nuanced social-structuring of projects to the
flow of capital) prompts other questions, conjuring
other ways to rehearse freedoms, defying
invented walls .. and reweaving it all once again
into radical inter-dependencies that are truer to
the realer larger reality of entangled life”.
Gabriella Gómez-Mont, 2023
28

The Banksia as a Metaphor...
We illustrated this response with images
representing the Banksia or Wallum. The Banksia
grows in what could be seen as quite difficult terrain,
reminds us of regeneration, rebirth, particularly after
crisis, with many species needing fire before the
woody fruits are able to crack open and release their
seeds.
Banksia roots are also important to soil health and
fertility. Banksias have ‘cluster roots’, shaped like
brushes with hundreds of tiny roots connecting with
the soil, making them able to thrive in poor or sandy
soils. Banksias improve soil conditions as the soils
support their growth - fostering a relationship of
mutuality between growth and conditions.
Banksias have connections to the ancient continent
of Gondwana and have modern relatives in once
connected lands as far away as Africa. Banksias are
seeding futures at the same time as being rooted in
ancient pasts.
Like the banksia fruit, there are some core seeds
within this nation that could germinate thriving
futures for all species who call this place home.
Yet we are at a critical juncture, a tipping point, a
moment in which extraordinary courage is needed
- and perhaps we need to go through metaphorical
cultural fires to ensure that these seeds will actually
germinate these possible futures. Whether we
are speaking of The Voice and creating a strong
path towards Treaty, or whether we are speaking of
ensuring that we acknowledge and act on addressing
the climate and biodiversity crises, we will need
courage, truth-telling, deep reflection and radical
imaginations over the coming years.
29
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Elkington, J. (2018) 25 Years Ago I Coined the Phrase “Triple
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Johar, I. (2017) ‘10 Provocations for the Next 10 years of
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www.griffith.edu.au/griffith-business-school/centre-for-systems-innovation